News and views
Sam Reviews 'All That I Am' by Anna Funder
Posted By: Sam Ruddock, 18 May 2012
All That I Am – Anna Funder
“When Hitler came to power I was in the bath. The wireless in the living room was turned up loud so Hans could hear it in the kitchen, but all that drifted down to me were waves of happy cheering, like a football match. It was Monday afternoon.”
All That I Am opens with history on a knife edge. The Golden Era of the Weimar Republic – artistic, progressive, intellectual, experimental, permissive, excessive, - is passing and a new one of extremes about to dawn. So well trodden is this history that we think we know what will follow, but one of the outstanding things about Anna Funder’s debut novel is that it reveals a side to the history hitherto largely uncovered: the early years of the Nazi’s terror, the persecution and expulsion of political opposition, the extent to which other countries were desperate not to antagonise Hitler, the long arm of the Gestapo reaching out further than anyone dared believe. As she did in Stasiland – a reportage collection of personal stories from behind the Berlin Wall that won the Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction – Funder casts a fresh and vibrant eye on forgotten stories. All That I Am is another marvellous book.
The characters here belong to that Weimar generation: they are the World War One survivors who vowed that war could never be allowed to happen again, the political reformers who saw progressive social democracy as the antidote to imperialist conflict, the artists and journalists who captured the atmosphere of the 1920, the teenagers inspired by the language of the future.
All That I Am is narrated alternately by celebrated German playwright Ernst Toller in New York in 1939 as he seeks to re-write his memoirs, and an elderly Ruth Wesemann in 2001, who receives the recently rediscovered memoirs in the post. Reading these memoirs unlocks her memory and events come flooding back and soon overtake her. Between them, Ruth and Toller bring the unremembered – Hans Wesemann, Dora Fabian, Berthold Jacob, Mathilde Wurm (all whom existed though are here sometimes linked in ways they were not in life) – back to life. Their story is of bravery and conviction in the face of history, of desperate opposition to the reprisals that followed the Reichstag Fire and subsequent exile in London. There, powerless and with threats against their lives growing and the UK government turning a blind eye, they continue to struggle, desperate to warn the world against what is happening before it is too late.
The extent of Funder’s archival research is impressive, and her decision to novelise the events a wise one. It allows her to marry the personal stories of her characters with a broad brush stroke approach to history. Fact, interpretation and biography form the framework for All That I Am, but it is the fiction that makes it a great book. Funder imagines the characters back to life in vivid detail; readers will be quickly engrossed in their milieu, standing alongside them in terrified defiance.
This is white-knuckle storytelling. Through the personal narratives, Funder explores the experiences of the characters, the driving forces behind why and how people are able to be brave, and the results of that bravery on their lives and those around them. She adeptly explores the paradoxical mix of fragility and strength that can sometimes be the make-up of great people.
This is particularly the case with the heroine, Dora Fabian, a ‘sort of German de Beauvior: less sex, but more political”. She is driven by conviction in her cause, self-sufficient and no-nonsense. Ruth and Toller are each enthralled by her – ‘We were the two for whom she was the sun. We moved in her orbit and the force of her kept us going.’ – and so is Anna Funder. In an interview with The Scotsman, she describes the experience of coming across Dora’s story as leaving her ‘thunderstruck and irrational and besotted and intrigued.’ She is a compelling character and it is apparent that, for Funder as well as her characters, this book is a act of love, of recording her courage and self-sacrifice, celebrating and remembering her life.
The same desire to resurrect and testify to those past is apparent in the character of Ruth, whom Funder met in Ruth’s later years, and whose stories first turned her on to the possibility of this book. Ruth is the compassionate core of the novel, an unobtrusive observer of those around her. This personal sympathy could easily turn All That I Am into sycophantic fiction of the worst kind, but Funder impressively maintains a rounded warts-and-all view of her characters. Compassion is a constant theme and one feels that it is the challenge of doing justice to these figures that drove her to write. ‘Imagining the life of another is an act of compassion as holy as any’, says Ruth at one stage, ‘once you have imagined such suffering, how can you still do nothing?’
By presenting humanised stories, and enabling readers to experience these vicariously through the characters, fiction has amazing power to change our understanding of the world and compassion for others one person at a time. Funder and I appear to share this idealistic conviction. All That I Am is an exercise in proving the validity of this conviction. But more than this, it is a wonderful read.
The plot starts slowly, with more set-up than feels necessary, but builds and once the characters come into their own it swiftly becomes an involving, compassionate and wonderful novel of love, friendship, courage, espionage, and betrayal. It is both a page-turning thriller and a considered investigation of courage and conviction. The characters are tested at every step, and they respond in varying ways. Some turn, some break, none is perfect. In the end, as Wystan Auden notes to Toller: ‘All that we are not stares back at all that we are.’
Unmissable Events at Worlds Literature Festival 2012
Posted By: Rowan Whiteside, 17 May 2012
Worlds Literature Festival happens every year towards the end of June in venues across Norwich. This year’s Worlds Festival is taking place from the 18th of June till the 22nd and features evening events from world-renowned authors Michael Ondaatje and J.M. Coetzee amongst others. The Afternoon Reading Sessions are open to the public and are completely free- giving you the opportunity to hear from brilliant writers in a more intimate environment.
Jeanette Winterson is returning to Norwich for an evening event with Jo Shapcott and Dame Gillian Beer. I was lucky enough to hear Jeanette Winterson read and discuss her latest book, Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal last year, and I promise you her memoir is even better when read by the author herself! Jo Shapcott’s newest collection of poetry, Of Mutability, is incredibly moving and has been in great demand in the office. I'm sure that Of Mutability will attain even greater poignancy when Jo Shapcott discusses her motivation and writing processes.
I also can’t wait to hear Nobel Laureate J.M. Coetzee reading from his work. I’ve been a big fan of his work for years and this event is made all the more special because Coetzee rarely appears at public events. Anna Funder and Tim Parks are also appearing alongside J.M. Coetzee. Our other unmissable event stars Michael Ondaatje and Kamila Shamsie. Michael Ondaatje’s novel The English Patient won the 1992 Booker Prize and was adapted into an Oscar winning film. Both of these events are available as part of our multi-buy deal (£20 or £15 concessions for both events).
Teju Cole, whose novel Open City won the Hemingway/Pen Award is visiting Norwich to participate in World Voices, an event which celebrates Refugee Week. Bestselling author Vesna Goldsworthy will also be reading at this event. The closing event of Worlds will celebrate the launch of Granta Britain. How better to commemorate the year of the Jubilee than with wonderful writing?
This over-arching theme of Worlds Literature Festival 2012 is ‘Fiction, Memoir and the Self’. Each of the events will be loosely focused on exploring the relationship between biographical truth and fictional representation.
Find out more about Worlds Literature Festival.
Writers' Centre Norwich receives £240,000 from Arts Council England
Posted By: Richard White, 17 May 2012
Hot on the heels of news about Norwich becoming England’s first UNESCO City of Literature and recently being granted £3 million from Arts Council England to develop the International Centre for Writing, we’re delighted, and ecstatic, and really very pleased to announce that we have received £240,000 from Arts Council England’s Catalyst fund.
The money will support WCN’s fundraising development and will enable us to create a major national digital literature hub as well as a new literary commissioning fund that will provide new writing, cross art form and work in translation for that hub.
You can find out more about this fantastic news on our press release, but for a snippet, here’s what WCN Chief Exec Chris Gribble said:
"We appreciate enormously the scope this Catalyst grant will give us to support the fundraising development of our important new International Centre for Writing as the physical expression of Norwich’s new status as England’s first UNESCO City of Literature. As a leading national literature development organisation, Writers’ Centre Norwich recognises that we have to be innovative in our approach to fund-raising as well as in the work we deliver every day with writers and readers, in and out of schools, in our region, nationally and internationally."
Find out more about the ACE Catalyst fund and its recipients.
Words, Ideas and Graphic Novels- A Look at the Festival So Far
Posted By: Rowan Whiteside, 16 May 2012
The Norfolk and Norwich festival collaborated with Writers’ Centre Norwich to create a series of events called Words & Ideas. The events so far have all been brilliant in dramatically different ways.
Friday kicked off with an evening event from Alain de Botton where he discussed his latest book
Religion for Atheists. I missed the event because I was at the Spiegletent watching Bourgeois and Maurice perform- a cabaret band with a scathingly brilliant repertoire of tunes, however I heard all about it from my colleagues at WCN. Leila Telford, our Resources Manager, says:
“What a spark of genius to programme Alain de Botton at the start of a cultural festival like NNF12. His premise in Religion for Atheists, which he so convincingly presented to a packed Norwich Playhouse on May 11, is that we can pick and mix symbolic and ceremonial religious experiences, and recreate them through other mediums, such as the arts. This set the stage for a fresh examination of all the upcoming NNF arts events, and a recognition of how we can artistically exploit religious architecture to add a soupcon of the sublime to secular choirs, art films, jazz and classical orchestras and contemporary circus acrobatics.”
Saturday brought two events; Singing the City: From Dawn till Dusk and Tribunal 12. Singing the City took place around Norwich at dawn, midday and dusk, and was an ethereally beautiful experience. Singers performed in Norwich Cathedral, and around the mediaeval streets of Norwich (Elm Hill, Princes Street etc) which added a historical frisson to the event. It was great to hear the words we’d commissioned from George Szirtes and Andrew McDonnell come to life. Anyone who’d like to relive them can have a read of Andrew McDonell’s ‘3 Songs’ and George Szirtes’ 'Frozen Music’ here.
Tribunal 12 at the Norwich Playhouse was concerned with more contemporary issues. Featuring live streaming from Stockholm the event explored human rights violations across Europe, with particular concern for immigration. In between the live streamed events theatre groups performed pieces based around immigrant experiences. The evening brought music and the judgement from the Jury that Europe systematically violates human rights with its immigration policies. I still feel haunted by the immigrants’ stories and know that Tribunal 12 was an event which continues to have great social significance. (More on this soon.)
Finally, Alan Moore and Iain Sinclair visited the Playhouse on Monday for the Writing and Protest event. Iain Sinclair kept the audience riveted with his stories of being banned from Hackney Libraries and of travelling from sea to London via the river in a swan pedalo. Alan Moore read from his never published libretto based on the intriguing life of the alchemist John Dee.
Sinclair and Moore followed their individual readings with discussion and questions from the audience. Both writers talked about finding material in the everyday world and being drawn to the outsider- both in literature and in reality. Alan Moore described his protest writing as being inevitable rather than motivated by anger and categorically stated that he was against violence. Sinclair emphasised the need to trust our own first-hand experiences rather than the digitally imposed and manipulated images which are presented to us.
Alan Moore said that his writing method was to use the ignored and abandoned sections of society for inspiration. He described this as using the bits of wasteland of society to develop something more interesting. The event left me cheering for the outsider and has converted me to the cult of graphic novels- my next book to read will be V for Vendetta.
It’s the end of a fabulous week of events, but there are still more to come! This Saturday Norfolk and Norwich Millennium Library will be hosting A New World of Words; an event which explores Persian poetry next Saturday and Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy will be visiting Norwich in a sold-out event on Thursday the 24th May.
Take a look at our upcoming events.
Visit our Flickr Page to see more images from the Festival.
Welcome to Summer Reads 2012, where reading is just the start...
Posted By: Sam Ruddock, 09 May 2012
Love Reading
One of the constants throughout my life has been a love of stories. There has always been something special about holding a book in my hands and wondering where it might take me, that sense of possibility, the desire to dive in and explore. I love stories that take me on a journey I don't want to end, and to be accompanied by characters that become my friends. I love stories that make me think, that introduce me to new ideas and ways of seeing the world, or that show me what I already feel but haven’t found the words to articulate.
More than anything else, I believe passionately in the power of stories to transform our understanding of other people and the world, to help us be the best of ourselves. I often find myself emerging from a story feeling as though I have a new, more generous and conscientious, view of others and the world. As one of the characters in
All That I Am (one of our
Summer Reads) notes, ‘imagining the life of another is an act of compassion as holy as any.’ The intimacy between reader and book is a rare and wonderful thing.
That’s why it gives me great pleasure to bring you our
Summer Reads, which seeks to bring readers together to share the experience of reading, because a great book shared is even better than a great book read quietly on one’s own...and that’s saying a lot!
This brings us to the books. This year, for the first time, the books were selected by readers across Norfolk. It is, I think, our strongest list ever: five brilliantly written and readable titles through which you’ll walk in other shoes and experience other lives. Whether you read a lot, or just a little bit, you like to revisit familiar ground or try something completely new, these five books will challenge, inspire and delight readers.
This years Summer Reads books are:
- All That I Am by Anna Funder.
- Before I Go To Sleep by SJ Watson.
- Open City by Teju Cole.
- Of Mutability by Jo Shapcott.
- Down the Rabbit Hole by Juan Pablo Villalobos (translated by Rosalind Harvey).
There are characters to treasure – Dora, whose spirit and unquenchable belief in her cause make her the heroine of
All That I Am; precocious and lovable child-narrator Tochtli from
Down the Rabbit Hole – and scenarios that remain long in the mind. Common themes run across them, including personal responsibility for the state of the world, compassion for others, transience, and awareness of the plight of refugees both now and in the past. But first and foremost, these books tell stories that we can all enjoy and engage with. I’ve loved them, other readers have loved them, and I hope you love them too.
Bringing Readers Together
Reading the books is where it all begins. From there you can also get to know other readers in real life or online, meet the authors at events, absorb yourself in bonus material about the books, and win prizes by voting for your favourite.
Most of all, Summer Reads is a community rather an imposition. In the past we’ve selected six books, but this year there are only five: the sixth book is whatever you want it to be! While you read these books, I ask you to recommend your own favourites and to ask other readers for theirs. Over the course of the summer, we’ll be collecting readers’ cherished books at events and book clubs and library open day, as well as online. We’ll also be asking authors to recommend their favourite books. At the end of the summer, we’ll have a list of books that are loved by Norfolk readers that we can all share, and that can influence the books selected in future.
People often say that what they love about Summer Reads is that it introduces them to stimulating books, ideas, and people. Do get involved: I love talking to readers and hope to meet you soon (if I haven’t already). Summer Reads is all about the people who are involved in it, we hope you’ll join us in making this our best reading summer yet.
Reading is just the start... 
Hip Hip! Norwich is England's First UNESCO City of Literature
Posted By: Katy Carr, 09 May 2012
We heard yesterday at about 4.30 pm that Norwich has become England's first UNESCO City of Literature, joining an elite international network comprising Edinburgh, Melbourne, Iowa City, Dublin and Reykjavik. We are absolutely delighted with this news and would like to thank all the many partners who have helped us all to this success.
The UNESCO City of Literature accreditation lends international recognition to Norwich’s literary heritage, contemporary strengths and future potential in the field of literature, creative writing, reading and the literary arts and we are very proud.
See below for some key quotes, and links to more info about what this all means.
“I'm delighted by the news. Literature has deep roots in the beautiful city of Norwich and it was a natural first choice for UNESCO. I'm happy too for personal reasons - Norwich is where my own writing life began. Writers have known for centuries that Norwich is a dreamy city.” Ian McEwan, May 2012
“Congratulations on the success of Norwich’s bid. Thoroughly deserved.” Philip Pullman, May 2012
“This is recognition of the world wide reputation of Norwich as a centre for literary excellence, and acknowledgment that literature and literacy are powerful tools which can inspire people and help change lives." Councillor Brenda Arthur, Leader of Norwich City Council
Click below to read the full bid document:
Rowan Whiteside Blogs About Tribunal 12
Posted By: Rowan Whiteside, 03 May 2012
Immigration and asylum will always be a contentious subject. Whether you yourself have experience of immigration first hand, or have gained knowledge on the subject from newspaper articles and other content, you are sure to have an opinion or stance. Tribunal 12 challenges our preconceptions and forces us to examine our responses to immigration. The day is taking place at Norwich Playhouse from 9am till 11pm and includes live streaming from Stockholm as well as a day long programme of events and music at The Norwich Playhouse Playroom for you to dip in and out of.
Inspired by the International War Crimes Tribunal formed by Bertrand Russell and Jean Paul Sartre in 1967, the live streaming of Tribunal 12 will feature testimonies, documentation, performances and input from acclaimed international artists and experts all beamed to you in your seat in the Norwich Playhouse. Find about more about the live streaming here.
The full day event at the Playhouse also gives you the opportunity to discuss and debate the role of immigration in our society. The day will have a real festival feel and will include several live performances from various theatre groups, including the newly commissioned Label Me Not; a ten minute short which examines the dehumanisation of asylum seekers. There will be DJ’s playing from 4-11pm in the Playhouse Bar, and World Music playing all day.
Tribunal 12 gives you the opportunity to meet like-minded people and discuss key issues in a relaxed atmosphere- and what better atmosphere then the charmingly quirky and fairy-lit Playhouse? There’s sure to be impassioned debate around the plight of immigrants, fiery political discussions and even some dancing.
For those of you who plan to stay the day there will be a Barbecue from 12pm in the Playhouse garden. For those of you who plan to stay all night you can enjoy performances from some of the best DJ’s around. And, for those of you who just want to pop in and out, that’s okay too.
Best of all, it’s only a fiver!
Buy your ticket online.
The Story Museum: Other Worlds
Posted By: Chris Gribble, 02 May 2012
I’ve just returned from the opening night of the Other Worlds exhibition at The Story Museum in Oxford. My mind is hopping between the images and fragments of other worlds opened up by this extraordinary collaboration between writers, artists and the Story Museum building itself: the science of capturing a story as expressed in the marks it leaves on a handkerchief after a sneeze, the Lost Property Office (spare sets of marbles available), the Time Travel Office (has anyone seen Nostrodamus and please, ladies, the Bullingdon Club tour is for gentlemen only, Mr Cameron will be along shortly) and the glorious, tumbling, vociferous angels garlanding the entrance to this magical building in the centre of Oxford.
But back to the beginning, where all good stories start (until the modernists came along, but we won’t get involved in that debate just yet…).
The Story Museum is space to capture the power, joy and importance of stories. A place that reminds and teaches us that without stories (narrative, imagination, difference, risk) we cannot understand, describe or enjoy the world we live in. It is a place that will head Oxford’s bid to be UNESCO World Book Capital in 2014 and a labour of love for all those involved. It is also, in the words of its Co-Director, ‘in the pumpkin phase’. That is, the building is there, the passion is there, the remit is there, but the magical transformation (i.e. the MONEY) is still to arrive in full. They have the building, the great idea, and a lot of backing from investors, volunteers, Arts Council England, Oxford City Council and others, but they’re still fundraising.
So what do they do? Why, they invite a magnificent collaboration between Dark Angels (http://www.dark-angels.org.uk/) and a set of artists (with the support of Arts Council England), to animate their fabulous building with intriguing ideas, fragments of stories, rooms of delight, audio, video, art, and the infinite promise of ‘Once upon a Time…’
The space is an old GPO building – suitably enough, designed for the transfer of stories, news, gossip and information. The artists range from fabulous painters to cunning conceptual types, master story tellers and tantalizing poets. The result is a wonderful exhibition that brings together the playful, comforting, disturbing, didactic and delightful in an amazing setting that is surely set to be a national treasure of a place when it opens fully in 2014.
Do try and call in over May to see the Other Worlds exhibition. If you can’t make it, join their mailing list to hear about the other treats in store. Support it financially with a gift large or small if you can, or perhaps with some time, if you live locally.
I hope they all live happily ever after. Or interestingly ever after, at least.
To find out more about the Other Worlds exhibition visit http://www.storymuseum.org.uk/the-story-museum/otherworlds
Programme Manager (Maternity Cover)
Posted By: Anonymous, 02 May 2012
Don't forget the closing date for our Programme Manager (Maternity Cover) post is May 14, just two weeks to go! Further details.
Looking Back: The Norwich Showcase
Posted By: Richard White, 25 April 2012
Back in March we presented an international platform for British writing and literature development called the Norwich Showcase. We did this in partnership with the British Council in venues across Norwich, and, frankly, loved every minute of it.
The Showcase introduced international literature specialists to excellent British writers and translators and brought together literature delegates from across the world, literature organisations from the UK and some of the best writers out of the UK.
Want to find out how it went? Good, because our former Digital Media Officer, Ed Cottrell, kindly returned to interview, film events and generally capture the flavour of all that went on; he did a cracking job.
Good eh?
There’s a lot more media to consume on our Norwich Showcase project page: films from our live streamed events featuring readings, a translation slam and more; podcasts of author readings; photos by Martin Figura and Dave Guttridge and blogs from our delegates and writers.
It's like we never left!
Get Out Before Dawn With The Voice Project
Posted By: Katy Carr, 18 April 2012
"We are making a piece which features the beauty of a single voice on a rooftop; the harmonic intrigue of a small ensemble in a crypt and the uplifting sound of massed voices in the cloisters and nave of Norwich Cathedral."
Sian Croose and Jon Baker from The Voice Project are well known in Norwich for their original and beautiful musical events. So Writers' Centre Norwich is delighted to support their 2012 Norfolk and Norwich Festival production Singing the City - From Dawn to Dusk, by sponsoring the original libretto created by Andrew McDonnell and George Szirtes. You can read that work soon on our NewWriting site, but for now, here’s a little more info from Sian and Jon about why you’ll want to be getting up before the sun rises in a few Saturday’s time in order to join in...
Singing the City – From Dawn to Dusk – Saturday 12th May
Singing the City is going to be a musical mystery tour animating the medieval streets and buildings from St Andrews Plain to Cathedral Close with exciting new music created specially for the Voice Project Choir by Jeremy Avis, Jonathan Baker,
Helen Chadwick and Orlando Gough.
We plan to stage three performances that make use of a whole variety of interesting and unusual acoustic spaces - interior and exterior: placing singers in squares and streets, crypts and alleys, dark corners and cloisters, courtyards and rooftops.
The Voice Project Choir conducted by Sian Croose with Nik Bärtsch at the piano NNF May '11
The piece will have a more theatrical feel than previous projects and we will be working with a theatre director as part of our rehearsal process.
The libretto is being created by George Szirtes and Andrew McDonnell and will describe worlds of shadow and light and tell the stories of past and present. We are making a piece which features the beauty of a single voice on a rooftop; the harmonic intrigue of a small ensemble in a crypt and the uplifting sound of massed voices in the cloisters and nave of Norwich Cathedral.
To take part in Singing the City - From Dawn to Dusk on Saturday 12th May, please gather at
Norwich Cathedral. There are performances at sunrise (5.11am), 2pm & 10pm.
About The Voice Project
The Voice Project is the umbrella title covering the joint activities of singer/choral leader/composer partnership of Sian Croose and Jonathan Baker. Since 2003 we have been running large-scale vocal performance projects in the UK which bring together outstanding musicians and community choirs in events that combine the ethos of community music with cutting-edge creativity and high performance and production values. Working with partners from Norwich Arts Centre, Norfolk and Norwich Festival, the Sage Gateshead, Jazz Sous Les Pommiers, the Norwegian and Swiss Cultural Foundations, Writers' Centre Norwich and international music promoters Serious, we have premiered new works by Barbara Thompson, Karen Wimhurst, Richard Chew, Dennis Rollins, Andy Sheppard, Jon Hassell, Gwilym Simcock, Arve Henriksen, Jan Bang and Nik Bärtsch.
Best wishes
Sian & Jon
Which Space? Occupied by Whom? To What End?
Posted By: Katy Carr, 17 April 2012
“Writers who do not understand the possibilities of hypermedia, ebooks, enhanced books and apps deny themselves a range of opportunities which, even if they choose not to exercise them, should be understood.”
How can writers be supported in the ever changing writing landscape?
Writers, what should you be doing to help yourselves?
Take a moment to read this fascinating blog by digital and media guru Bill Thompson, adapted from a session at the NALD Conference and find out why audience is a dirty word and why writers cannot afford to ignore the online world
Bill Thompson
Which Space? Occupied by Whom? To What End?
I wrote this up from the rough notes I used to deliver my introductory remarks to the “Occupying the Space” session at the National Association for Literature Development (NALD) conference in London on 27–28 March 2012. Fellow panellists Patrick Keogh and Ola Animashawun also spoke, and a lively discussion followed about the ways in which writers can be supported.
In this session we’re supposed to look at ‘how organisations and individuals occupy the space in which to support writers, readers and new audiences and new content’.
I’m not too sure about this mission.
First, because ‘content’ is a dirty word. It diminishes everything it touches, brings all our creative works down to the lowest possible level and makes it far too easy for corporations like Apple and Amazon – and Waterstone’s – to treat literature as just another product category to be sliced, diced, given an SKU and analysed with a pivot table so that a semi-literate accountant can decide that mid-list books are not worth publishing and that banana cases make a more sensible inventory.
Second, because ‘audiences’ don’t exist. They never really did, although for many years our ability to engage the individual within the mass was so limited that we were forced to treat groups of people assembled in one place or sharing the same experience within a particular time frame as a single entity with a definable set of characteristics.
But every member of a group – such as the group listening to me now – brings their own experience and desires to the event, and listens to me through the framework of their prior life and knowledge.
You are all hearing me say something different, just as you hear the actors in a play say different things, because your lives are different from each other and from mine. A talk or a play or a TV show or a novel are all experiments in co-creation, and instead of ‘audiences’ we should treat each other as what we are: participant-observers in a large-scale action research project that we call ‘culture’.
Fortunately, I do believe in both readers and writers, insofar as it’s possible to believe in anything.
I believe readers are with us now, and that they always will be – or rather, that the capacity for deep reading is an essential aspect of engaging in human culture and that the ability to do it is one of the things that defines being human. If we stop doing it, then we’ll have to call ourselves something else.
And writing just happens. We are the writing species. In fact, the entire basis of our technological society springs from that form of writing we call ‘code’, and was called into existence by the two forms of writing we call ‘literature’ and ‘science’. If reading is an essential human skill, then writing is a core drive.
I’m aware that in saying this I appear to exclude the illiterate from consideration, but I’d argue that literacy and the nature of the literate brain so change human culture that there is a real difference between living in a pre-literate culture and being illiterate in a literate culture, and that the latter is something that should not be tolerated.
As Maryanne Wolf points out in her wonderful book
Proust and the Squid, teaching someone to read rewires their brain – it’s the closest thing to brain surgery you can do without a scalpel – and just as those of us who have been through the process cannot go back, culture is changed forever by the emergence of literacy.
Writing and reading are happening in new, increasingly screen-based, contexts, and writers need to understand those contexts if they are to thrive and find ways to reach readers.
It’s like being a screenwriter in the late 1920s, as talkies come in – anyone who has seen The Artist will have noted its shallow characterisation and boringly linear plot, but once you have sound and dialogue the game is completely different and much more is possible. Old-style screenwriters faced a challenge, and it’s no surprise that Hollywood brought in the novelists to help.
A similar transition faced programmers as we moved from batch-processing mainframe systems that did one thing at a time to event-driven windowed environments and apps that require completely different programming models. It might all end up as lines of code, but the environment within which it is both written and experienced has changed completely.
Not everything will change. I think we’ll still have books, that cut pages stitched and glued together will remain an important way in which ideas are moved around in our culture. But they will be written, printed, distributed and read in a completely different world – one that writers need to understand.
In order to do this they need support, and that’s one of the things that Writers’ Centre Norwich tries to offer. Publishers, agents, booksellers and the rest of the industry need to rally around the writers and help them find ways to engage with readers, through books or any other available channels.
But I have two specific suggestions for things writers can and should do for themselves, as a matter of urgency:
1. Learn to code
2. Engage with hypermedia and transmedia
A great artist has the core skills – the craft skills – that underpin their work, and chooses whether or not to exercise them. Picasso could draw, and so can Tracy Emin. They both then have the freedom to experiment and to take their work into spaces that might look ‘easy’ or ‘obscure’ but which are grounded, like Mondrian’s grids, in a lifetime of artistic practice – the grids come from trees, for example. (We can contrast that with Damien Hirst, whose work is ineffably shallow.)
Writers who do not understand the possibilities of hypermedia, ebooks, enhanced books and apps deny themselves a range of opportunities which, even if they choose not to exercise them, should be understood.
These two things will allow you to stop your work becoming mere content to be fed into the satanic mills of the ebook production process, homogenised to grey pixels in a standard font on a ‘device’ that holds thousands of ‘books’ and makes them all the same. It will keep you from the grasp of Apple, Amazon and Tesco.
In the end, every writer has to make their own choices and find their own way. Writing, like reading or dying, is something each of us does alone, and only the writer can know what drives them to write or what they are trying to say.
£3m backing for Norwich’s International Centre for Writing
Posted By: Richard White, 29 March 2012
Writers’ Centre Norwich is absolutely delighted to have received first stage backing from Arts Council England to develop an International Centre for Writing (ICW) in Norwich.
In partnership with Norwich City Council, University of East Anglia and Norfolk County Council, this backing for ICW is brilliant news for literature, writers, readers and the city of Norwich.
Chris Gribble, Chief Executive of Writers’ Centre Norwich said:
“We are delighted to have been offered this important grant from Arts Council England today and see it as a great endorsement of a project which marks a shift in ambition and capacity for the non-commercial literature sector, at a time when literature as a sector is undergoing huge change. Literature is our national art form and this award demonstrates belief in a remarkable partnership dedicated to exploring the social and artistic power of creative writing and reading. It is great news for readers and writers nationally and internationally, and for Norwich too.”
Helen Lax, Regional Director, Arts Council England, East, said:
"With a programme that is aimed at achieving resilience, sustainability and innovation, it seems only fitting that Writers’ Centre Norwich has been given the green light to continue with its bold plans for improved facilities. Writers’ Centre Norwich has great vision and ambitions for physical improvements that will enhance its ability to not only produce great art, but reach wider audiences and equip artists to fulfil their potential. Norwich already has an international reputation for literature and writing, and the plans for a new centre reflect and respond to this. The proposed investment shows our commitment to these exciting plans and we look forward to working with these organisations as they develop."
Writers' Centre Norwich looks forward to creating a space that will inspire writers, readers and communities by supporting the development of and improving access to the best in world literature.
This is just the start, and we hope you join us for the journey ahead!
Read WCN’s Press Release
Rowan Whiteside Blogs About the Norwich Showcase
Posted By: Rowan Whiteside, 28 March 2012
The Norwich Showcase ran from the 9th to the 13th of March 2012. Organised by Writers’ Centre Norwich and British Council, the Showcase aimed to introduce international delegates from all walks of the literary world to the best and brightest of British writers, translators, and literature specialists. The hope was that this meeting of international and national representatives would create a platform for collaborative work.
The Showcase opened with a reading from poet Lavinia Greenlaw (The Casual Perfect, Minsk) and from Hannah Lowe (The Hitcher), an exciting new talent in modern British poetry. Hannah’s reading was emotionally pitch-perfect, and touched deeply on her relationship with her father. I will definitely be purchasing her new collection once it’s published; if only to discover more about her intriguing father! Lavinia and Hannah's reading was the first of our events to be live streamed, and viewers from all over the world tuned in.
You can watch Lavinia's reading and other perfomances from the Norwich Showcase on our YouTube page.
I wasn’t present for Saturday’s events and have been frequently informed that I missed out. Kei Miller (A New Song of Light, There is an Anger That Moves) was frequently mentioned to me over the course of the Norwich Showcase and I have heard that he is being booked for literature festivals and events around the world. Anjali Joseph (Saraswati Park, Another Country) is another writer that I didn’t get to see perform, although I plan to console myself with an advance copy of her latest novel.
If you too missed Kei's reading at the Norwich Showcase you can listen to it on SoundCloud.
Listen to other podcasts from the Norwich Showcase on Writers' Centre Norwich SoundCloud page.
Sunday’s events kicked off with another round of the 6X8 Delegate Presentations. The Delegate Presentations throughout the Norwich Showcase never failed to be fascinating and intriguing. It seems that across the world representatives of literature face similar problems, yet they remained deeply passionate in their belief of the power of literature. The Norwich Showcase proved over and over again that books, reading, and writing, make a huge difference in people’s lives.
(Images courtesy Dave Guttridge)
Sunday evening finished with a bang with stunning performances from live literature artists Molly Naylor (Whenever I Get Blown Up I Think of You) and Luke Wright (High Performance, The Vile Ascent of Lucien Gore and What the People Did). Molly Naylor performed movingly from her debut Whenever I Get Blown Up I Think of You. Luke Wright performed two pieces with his trademark scintillating wit and sarcasm.
Monday delivered another live literature performance, but this time in the form of a showdown between Francesca Beard (Chinese Whispers), Siddhartha Bose (Kalagora) Ross Sutherland (Twelve Nudes, Things to Do Before You Leave Town) and Writers’ Centre’s very own Martin Figura (Whistle, Boring the Arse Off Young People). The Literary Death Match involved jeering, cat-calling, and even a nerf gun. Ross Sutherland was- after a tense tie-breaker- crowned reigning champion after his Fresh Prince of Bel-Air inspired set. Drinks and much debate followed the event.
(Images courtesy of Dave Guttridge)
One of the final events of the Norwich Showcase was my favourite; the Creative Non-Fiction event with William Fiennes (The Snow Geese, The Music Room), Kathryn Hughes (The Short Life and Long Times of Mrs Beeton, George Eliot: The Last Victorian) and Alexander Masters (Stuart: A Life Backwards, The Genius in my Basement). William Fiennes read from a stunning short piece entitled Why the Ash Has Black Buds, while Alexander Masters and Kathryn Hughes spoke about the trials and tribulations of biography writing.
Enjoy the Creative Non-Fiction podcast on SoundCloud:
I believe the Norwich Showcase was a spectacular success. I thoroughly enjoyed the events, and had the pleasure of meeting many wonderful individuals who I hope to see again very soon. I have been reliably informed that many of the different organisations are already fostering links between one another, and that new partnerships and projects are on the horizon.
(Image courtesy of Martin Figura)
To find out more about The Norwich Showcase visit our project page.
Norwich Showcase Podcast - Creative Non-Fiction
Posted By: Richard White, 13 March 2012
Day five of the Norwich Showcase: Creative Non-Fiction featuring readings, and discussions with William Fiennes, Kathryn Hughes and Alexander Masters.